Given
56%
while driving a
BMW E39 5 series
(235/45 R17) on
a combination of roads
for 6,000
average miles
A reasonably priced tire with excellent performance. No issues with grip wet or dry. Perhaps they don't hold on quite as long as other more expensive tires such as the michelin ps2 but give plenty of warning before they completely let go making spirited driving quite fun. My car's got sport suspension, with these tires, it's a fun and safe combination.
HOWEVER!! There seems to be a quality control issue with these tires. One of my tires has a manufacturuing fault making it virtually impossible to balance. The only time it's come close is when put on the Hunter Roadforce balancing machine, but it didn't last for very long. Recently had vibration, took it to local tire fitters with newly calibrated machine, took over 115g of weights and it's still not right.
Another big flaw in these tires is that they can make a horrible grinding noise at low speeds, much like a failed bearing. My first set of 452's did this after a few k miles of use, I put it down to a bad batch. When they wore out I fitted some more, at the same time my father had all his tires (on an e39 540i estate with same size tires) changed to 452's. Nice and silent at first, then both of our cars developed the same roaring/grinding noise. So clearly it's not an isolated incident, this is an inherent flaw with these tires, not had this problem with any other tire. It may be isolated to certain size/ratios of these tires, but I know that I certainly won't be buying them again - which is a great shame as I love the performance and the price.